“Ask for Janice” ~ Adam Yauch from new school brat to Old Skool philosopher
My first tape was Pauls Boutique, that should pretty much sum up the next article. In the words of Notorious BIG in Juicy “I let my tape rock till my tape popped”. They say that the first Album that you physically own for yourself you “Will hold forever in your own personal immortality” (John Lennon). It was my first introduction into hip hop and I have to thank my brother for it, a listened once hand me down, with a very used ‘Best of Run DMC’ cassette. I went through my old cassettes on Sunday to try and find it. I couldn’t find it anywhere, but i found an old bootleg of their 99 Hello Nasty tour at the palace.
I was sparked by an incident in the crowd that I had never really paid attention to in the recording. About 40 minutes into their set a guy in the crowd starts asking for ‘Hey Ladies’. Soon a little chant starts. Adam Yauch’s voice comes over the top with a response. “I’m really sorry but you aint going to hear that song or Girls”. The crowd stops and gets over it quickly as Body Movin is brought into play by Mix master mike.
They say sometimes in rap that its “All about flow”, fuck Jay Z claims that every time you listen to him “You’re now tuned into the motherfucking greatest”. But I think over flow, what you say in rap is more important than how it’s actually delivered. I never actually rated Adam’s flow (Just sayin), I always felt that Mike D and Ad-Roc had a better flow and were a lot more creative with the word soup that they delivered. But what I feel Adam Yauch lacked in vocal audacity he made up for in content. Sometimes the most basic form of vocalism can have the most profound execution and effect.
Listening to the Beastie Boy’s catalogue from start to finish is like listening to the three kids from Brooklyn’s own personal growth. More so noticeable is the content change by Adam. From License to Ill we hear a brat, a bravado punk with little respect for ladies (they used to perform with a giant inflatable penis on stage and traveled America with the ironic “Like a virgin tour with Madonna”. Apart from the classic ‘Hey ladies’ (In which Adam Yauch had very little audible content). The content of Pauls Boutique was less brash and apart from party tunes like ‘Shake your rump’ and ‘Sounds of Science’ there is a more cultural urban narrative.
By the time you get a minute something into Ill communication it’s clear that Hey ladies is a thing of the past. Adam gels the words “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue, the disrespect to women has got to be through. To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends, I want to offer my love and respect till the end”. I always remembered this line. At the time of recording, acts such as Too live crew, The Ghetto Boys and others used mysoginism and degradation of women as topics, I always thought it was good to hear a rapper asking us to treat women with respect. In fact Adam met the full force of Keith Flint from the Prodigy when he asked them not to perform ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ at a festival performance. This is how serious he took his beliefs.
Unless you’re a big fan of the Beastie Boy’s you wouldn’t really know that Adam was a practicing Buddhist. You really should have looked a little better at Ill communication and the song ‘Bodhisattva Vow’. which is basically Adam’s acceptance and description of what he feels Buddhism means to him. Yauch was inspirational, organizing the Free Tibet concerts of the mid 90’s, through his own charity the Milarepa fund. Adam first sat in on a conference by the Dali Lama and by the end of his life he had had numerous private and personal audiences with the Dali Lama. This song indeed, inspired my investigation of the Buddhist faith and whilst I remain an atheist I like to believe that I have absorbed some of the basic Buddhist beliefs in my own personal life.
Adam openly welcomed calm in attitudes towards the Islamic community especially in the late 1990’s and especially after the world trade center attacks. Adam was one of the few to argue against open abuse of the Islamic faith, in a torrent of anti Muslim, fear induced sentiment. He openly criticized The US military reaction to these attacks “I’m getting really tired of the situation, the US attacking other nations.” Adam always had something to say and usually what he said was followed up by Ad-Rock or Mike D that was never as concise in thought but a welcome balance in humor or less dramatic. For example after the “I’m getting tired of the situation..” line Ad rocks response is “I’m a funky ass Jew and I’m on my way, I gotta say fuck the KKK, homphobics aint ok”. Whilst the other two members held on to the brattish charm to form their style, post ill communication Adam Yauch had become predominantly the conscience of the group, a sooth sayer between two intelligent jesters. The ying to the other two’s yang, perhaps fueling the other social commentary and political persuasion. The Album ‘To the five Boroughs’ carries a very post 911 political opinion to it and I wonder on reflection how much was fueled by Adam’s thought’s.
In the background now I’m listening to “Awesome… I shot that.” I can’t watch it at the moment, because I look at Adam and start to cry, cause I realize I’ll never see my favorite group perform ever again (I’m so gangsta). Adam what you brought to my life and the opinions I have, absorbed through your presence in the Beastie Boy’s, whether it be as a kid skating through the city to ‘Shake Your Rump’ and ‘So What You Want’, smoking dope as a teenager to ‘The in sound from way out’ or smashing down a hill to ‘Triple Trouble’. Since 9 years young you have always been in my ear and I hope to give a fresh MP3 album of Paul’s Boutique to my 9 year old son or daughter to start their musical crusade. You will always be the softer, more thoughtful Beastie Boy to me. The one with less brawn and more brains and I will be forever indebted to your contribution to my life. Whenever I’m at Hotham or Fall’s I’ll think of the line from ‘So Watcha Want’ “When the snow is fallin’ I am goin”.
Your name is MCA and you now have a license to chill.
Much Love Taran M
